The Midwest accent is considered the most "neutral" accent. Broadcasters and actors are taught to try to copy a Midwestern accent. I live in the Midwest, but that is straight out of many years of acting (including on the west coast) and a few years of school with the goal of becoming a broadcaster (until I realized it was boring to me). However, the Midwest has various accent (I have a northern Midwest accent, I stretch my "o"s), so the area that is usually singled out is northern Kansas area (near Kansas City/ NE boarder).

Random fact 2:

The accents of NE are just as varied as the Midwest. But, areas of NE have accents that are closer to the accents of the British in 1500-1600's than the current accents within England. So, if you want to know what Shakespeare sounded like... go to NE.

Pointless fact:

I say Bay-duh. I just can't seem to pronounce it the correct way. I know how to pronounce it the correct way, it just gets stuck. It does end up sounding like better when I say it.

Americans seem to say 'bay-tuh' more often. I have never heard anyone call them anything but 'be-tuhs' here (unless someone is calling them Siamese fighters).

You know what I find difficult to learn how to properly pronounce? The species names for wild bettas. I just guess with mine, and I am waiting until I run into someone who knows how to pronounce them perfectly so I can learn haha. I am probably mispronouncing them something terrible.

Cool facts NeptunesMom! Well at least I had part of it right haha. I like to know interesting and pointless facts too XD I'm full of other pointless facts as well haha

Well, if you want random facts I am your person. It's funny because that's one of the most recurring "critiques" I get from my students. We'll be talking about something and then I'll go on, and on, and on about random facts about whatever we're talking about. But, I am a force to be reckoned with when it comes to trivial pursuit.

Well, if you want random facts I am your person. It's funny because that's one of the most recurring "critiques" I get from my students. We'll be talking about something and then I'll go on, and on, and on about random facts about whatever we're talking about. But, I am a force to be reckoned with when it comes to trivial pursuit.

Ahaha, that's great! Darn, wish I had you as a teacher! Some of my professors do the same though, I always love to listen :)

AHHH Thank you Thank you!! I did a thread on this a while back..and it caused a lot of crap, but if you take the time to breed this noble fish please say the name RIGHT!!!
And then there are those who say, "Well that's just how I say it" and my response is "Whats your name"? and they say EXAMPLE: Joe I say Ok your name is now Frank because that just the way I say it!!
Back when I first joind IBC if you said Bay-Tah you were immeediatly corrected, and by folks from all over the states so please don't use the where I am from card.

I honestly don't think it's a HUGE deal, I'm just a little OCD and feel that if you want people to take you seriously and you actually know something about bettas, you should at least pronounce it correctly, you know? At least that's what I do.

It's kind of like an English teacher with bad grammar... I just have a hard time taking people seriously if they can't pronounce what they're talking about correctly. If they say they don't know a thing about betta fish then it's fine if they can't pronounce it. It's the reason why I looked up the pronunciation of "plakat" when I first got into bettas. I didn't know how to pronounce it so I took a minute of my time to learn to pronounce it correctly.

But when you've pronounced something wrong for a long time, then it takes a little bit to condition yourself to pronounce it correctly.

Like I said, I can see why people say it's not a big deal, it's just something that bothers me a little. But I'm just that way - not everyone is as nit picky as me.